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Star-Spangled Spam

Star-Spangled Spam Co m p l i c a t i o n s SNIDE EFFECTS Star-Spangled Spam ust remembering mean venerating? Sure, the past deserves our respect, as we all know. But does it also require spectacle? Some anniversaries—Warren Harding’s birthday or ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment come to mind—call for silence or the averted gaze. The less said the better. Which brings us to the War of 1812, that inglorious, two-and-a-half-year conflict between Great Britain and a fledgling United States. The bicentennial celebration of the war is approaching its denouement, after all. Here, indeed, is an episode of history that we may safely say produced next to nothing of value, with a 1959 hit record by Johnny Horton being a possible exception. Horton memorably sang of the Battle of New Orleans, known to every schoolkid in my day as a famous victory won after the war itself had basically already ended—a gold standard for meaningless military mayhem. The doughty Americans who sent the attacking redcoats fleeing through briars, brambles, and bushes “where a rabbit couldn’t go” succeeded mostly in advancing the political 8 1 The Baffler [no.26] M VICTOR KERLOW ambitions of General Andrew Jackson. And that was http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Baffler MIT Press

Star-Spangled Spam

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Publisher
MIT Press
Copyright
© 2014 Andrew J. Bacevich
ISSN
1059-9789
eISSN
2164-926X
DOI
10.1162/BFLR_a_00273
Publisher site
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Abstract

Co m p l i c a t i o n s SNIDE EFFECTS Star-Spangled Spam ust remembering mean venerating? Sure, the past deserves our respect, as we all know. But does it also require spectacle? Some anniversaries—Warren Harding’s birthday or ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment come to mind—call for silence or the averted gaze. The less said the better. Which brings us to the War of 1812, that inglorious, two-and-a-half-year conflict between Great Britain and a fledgling United States. The bicentennial celebration of the war is approaching its denouement, after all. Here, indeed, is an episode of history that we may safely say produced next to nothing of value, with a 1959 hit record by Johnny Horton being a possible exception. Horton memorably sang of the Battle of New Orleans, known to every schoolkid in my day as a famous victory won after the war itself had basically already ended—a gold standard for meaningless military mayhem. The doughty Americans who sent the attacking redcoats fleeing through briars, brambles, and bushes “where a rabbit couldn’t go” succeeded mostly in advancing the political 8 1 The Baffler [no.26] M VICTOR KERLOW ambitions of General Andrew Jackson. And that was

Journal

The Baffler – MIT Press

Published: Jul 1, 2014

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